Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Rustic Pasta

Some recipes are so simple, you have to ask, "why didn't I think of that?" The Rustic Pasta from Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet is one of those:

Admittedly, it isn't the most attractive dish, but I wish photos could convey flavor because this dish is packed with savory taste. Whole wheat spaghetti noodles are tossed with sauteed cabbage, onions, and celery seasoned with shoyu (I used soy sauce because I'm not fancy enough to buy shoyu) and a bit of marinara sauce. Though the recipe didn't call for it, I threw in some beefy-flavored textured vegetable protein (one of the basic faux meat recipes in my cookbook).

One thing I love about this recipe is its un-sauciness (yes, I made that word up). Though I love a good marinara, I've always preferred to have more noodles on my plate than sauce. When I was a little bitty kid, I ate my noodles sauce-less and simply covered in butter (a creation I dubbed "butter 'sketti"). Anyway, the recipe calls for six tablespoons of sauce. I actually upped it to a half-cup, and that was still a scant amount compared to the volume of noodles. I used the generic Whole Foods brand mushroom marinara, by the way.

19 comments:

Mmmm sounds tasty, Bianca! I always preferred my pasta as more-noodles-less-sauce, and as a kid, I'd often eat cooked pasta totally plain. So this "un-sauciness" (the perfect description, by the way) is my sort of thing. :)

sometimes simple really is the best! and i love me some less sauced sketties too 'cause i am also all about the noodley goodness! i bought the kind diet back in october, but my sister's been borrowing it for a while. i need to see about getting it back so i can make some rustic pasta for dan and i to enjoy. mmmmmmmmm!

Hahaha thank you for your comment. It had me actually "lol-ing". If you attempt the recipe, you'll have to let me know how it turns out. You can definitely just omit the Dr. Cow and use Daiya for all the cheese.

My name is Bianca ...

About Me

I'm an 11-year vegan, 21-year vegetarian from the Mid-South, not too far from the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. And that means cornbread, butter beans, and collard greens.
These days, I live in Memphis. Check out my cookbook — Cookin' Crunk. It's filled with yummilicious veganized soul food and country classics.